Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid | Book Review

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Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid
Published by HarperCollins on March 4, 2025
Genres: YA Fantasy, Dystopian, LGBT
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Source: OwlCrate

Content Warnings: Abuse, Violence, Gore, Death of a Child, Classism, Misogyny, Trauma, Body Commodification, Fire, Suicide, Murder, Adult-Minor Relationship
Rating:

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society. Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet. Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks. When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive. For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption. As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing. And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.

This year, I have read almost all of the books Ava Reid has written, and I have come to two conclusions: they like to use the word "gorge," and they are a talented writer but not great at telling a story. This last point is extremely disappointing. Reid has some of the most gorgeous prose I have ever read and some of the absolute best passages and lines of any author, but their stories almost always fail to deliver. Fable for the End of the World is one of these cases where the story fell flat, despite the beautiful prose.

Fable for the End of the World takes place in a future where the Earth has been ravaged by climate change and war, resulting in strange evolutions among the wildlife and a significant class divide. Despite the obvious issues of capitalism and innovation that brought about the present landscape, the wealthy continue to push capitalism, hiding away in their pristine cities and attending banquets and parties while the common folk suffer. In order to survive, people take on astronomical debts, and eventually, that deceptively endless supply of credit runs out, and the debt must be paid, often in blood. Unfortunately, this often results in parents turning over their children or elderly parents to participate in the Gauntlet, in which they are hunted by modified women on live television. These televised events are deliberately sprinkled with ads to encourage even more spending while reminding those with less are in a precarious situation. You can't fight oppression if you are fighting for your life.

This dystopian future is not much different from our own, minus the grotesquely "mutated" animals and humans, of course. I thoroughly enjoyed Reid weaving modern-day politics into a fantastical tale, as this helps put our current political and social climate into perspective for readers, especially young readers. We are living in a time where the class divide is deepening, and the disconnect between the common folk and the ultra-wealthy is becoming increasingly noticeable. Contrary to what you might think, you are closer to homelessness than you are to becoming a billionaire, and they do not care about you. Fable for the End of the World makes this very, very clear. The poor and struggling are a source of entertainment to die at the whims of those with more, especially to keep a corporation going. It calls out corporate oligarchies, the dehumanizing nature of online and streaming culture, the commodification of women's bodies, and our obsession with violence as a form of entertainment.

There is a passage toward the end of the book that sums this up rather succinctly. I am going to quote most of the passage because of everything in the story; this is the most important message:

"Debts. It all began with debts. Student loans, medical bills, mortgages, credit cards—all of it weighing down New Amsterdam's government like an anchor attached to a bloated corpse. People died and passed their debts on to their children, on to their children's children. Shackled by the debt that followed them for generations, people stopped buying houses and cars. The birth rate plummeted. There was a shortage of doctors and skilled professionals because who was going to take on the extra debt of getting an advanced degree, on top of everything else?

In an act of benevolence, Caerus bought all of New Amsterdam's debt. They begin a staggered program of loan forgiveness to jump-start the economy...And in order to entice people to buy houses and cars and to get their degrees, Caerus offered a massive line of credit to anyone purchasing their products: up to five hundred thousand credits.

...Looking back, anyone could've predicted what happened next. The erosion of lines between corporation and government. People clamoring for Caerus's CEO to replace the governor. An election with questionable democratic integrity. Schools that used to be state-run dissolved and replaced with a new standard curriculum created by Caerus.

...Caerus was running every other aspect of life in New Amsterdam—why not education, too? Why not military and defense? Why not housing and transportation? Why not health and human services?

..Because the truth is, things could always be worse. Sure, some people couldn't pay their debts and have to die for it, but those people are the stupid, the indulgent, the weak. As long as it's always somebody else, it's easy to blame them, easy, even, to cheer for their deaths."

As Trump's second term has worn on, I have found myself on more than one occasion thinking about this passage. The writing is on the wall, and so many are just sitting on the sidelines saying, "It could be worse!" And while that is true, that isn't an excuse to justify being a bystander to fascism and corporate greed. It was this passage and the underlying themes of the narrative that originally prompted me to give Fable for the End of the World a 4-star rating, which I have since reduced to a 3.5 because the rest of the story wasn't there.

The enemies-to-lovers trope was poorly executed, with the two leading girls falling in love significantly faster than they should have. They were enemies all of two seconds before sharing a bed. Like, I get times are tough, but what?? 

There is also zero resolution. Inesa's time in the Gauntlet does nothing. It doesn't spark revolutionary thoughts, it doesn't open anyone's eyes, it just is. This was incredibly frustrating to me, but, at the same time, extremely realistic. If the Palestinian genocide has taught me anything, it's that many people are willing to look atrocities in the face and say, "Eh...not my problem." I was really hoping Reid would offer young readers not only hope, but also the tools they need to fight against corporate oligarchs, fascism, and oppression. This would have been the perfect opportunity to provide those tools; instead, I was left saying, "That's it??"

My other major complaint with Fable for the End of the World is the number of times Reid used "gorge." It was used so often that I, too, wanted to vomit. Please learn a new phrase. Thankfully, Reid did a much better job in A Theory of Dreaming, which I recently finished, so maybe they are learning.

Despite the flaws in storytelling, Fable for the End of the World is a must-read, especially for younger folks. Books are political, as they should be, and Fable for the End of the World is a great way to introduce young readers to the threats we are facing today. They are our future, after all, and I will always choose not to sacrifice them for corporate greed.